Reality is just perception
by moosejuice5
Summary: Fitz remembered everything, but memories of the real world didn't remove his memories from the framework. Remembering his life with his mother doesn't replace his life with his farther. Remembering his loyalty to shield doesn't change what he's built with hydra and Remembering Jemma doesn't supplant his feeling for Ophelia.


Doctor Leopold Fitz stared into the amber liquid, watching the ice float in the crystal tumbler. His posture was relaxed, his tie undone and his hair unkempt, the image so contradictory to the rigid uncompromising one he presented to the world but that was the point of this place, their own private floor of the Triskelion, one of the most secure building on the planet. Only two people had access, him and the one person he trusted above all others, Ophelia. It was excessive perhaps, the Triskelion was after all a huge building and he doubted they used even a tenth of the floor but why not? Only the best for the Doctor and Madam Hydra.

He'd been waiting for two hours. He knew she'd come if he asked, leave whatever it was she was doing and come see him if he told her it was important, but he didn't. It was after all-important work they were doing, and he had a lot to think about while he waited.

They'd started after his talk with Radcliff, after the subversive Jemma Simmons screamed at him. Fragments of memories that couldn't be true, that directly contradicted what he knew of the world.

After his conversation with the traitor Skye they'd increased, in frequency, in length and in clarity. There were still pieces missing but what he had so far was disturbingly familiar, he'd heard it described twice before from a prisoner and a traitor, both of whom denounced as liars by the one he trusted most.

He remembered how reluctant Ophelia had been to involve him in their capture, how apprehensive she'd been to show him the footage of the subversive Jemma Simmons, how thankful, almost relieved she'd been when he promised to eliminate the threat. He needed answers, so he waited for the one person who he knew could provide them.

It was another hour before he heard their private lift open, very few had access and one only one would use it without invitation.

"Do you love me?"

"Leopo-" She began, not expecting the question.

"Do you love me?" he repeated, it wasn't the question he'd planned on asking first, but it was important and he needed a answer.

"Yes Leopold, of course. What is this about?" she asked eyeing the tumbler he still held, she hated it when he drank.

"You've been keeping secrets, lying to Me." he stated. "Don't deny it. Ever since meeting with Radcliff I've been having these flashes, memories of a life that I haven't lived." she looked worried, an expression he was not used to seeing on her face but had been becoming common in recent days.

"I love you Ophelia, there's nothing I wouldn't do for you, but if you don't trust me enough to be honest with me now we can't be together."

* * *

Terrigenesis was a sensation unlike any other, if Skye had to describe it she'd say it was like being remade but with a part of yourself that was always there, which made little sense she knew. The last time she went through it she had been terrified, which was understandable she thought being slowly cocooned in black goo which quickly hardens into rock trapping you inside was not a pleasant experience. This time though she was calm, she knew what was happening and she couldn't wait to get out, during her time in the framework she'd felt like there was a part of her walled off where she couldn't get to it and now the wall was being torn down.

She was surprised to see May waiting for her when the cocoon finally broke, she was watching her coming out of terrigenesis with something approaching fascination, once she'd fully freed herself May spoke,

"Explain."

"Right now?"

"Now's as good a time as any."

She was right; nobody would be chasing her while she was safely in her cell so she started to explain. She'd didn't get four sentences in before a guard opened the door. It was instinct, like the morning she'd in the framework and seen ward, like that morning she thrust the palm of her hand at him but unlike that morning where nothing had happened, shockwaves shoot out of her hand throwing the guard into the concrete wall and tearing the thick steal door from its hinges.

Mays up and moving not a moment later, "We need to move," May's by the door looking back at her, "Now."

Skye follows her out the door. She tries to ignore the broken door and the even more broken man in the corridor; she'd put far to much power into that. She can't help but notice May not sparing the guard a single glance. They've just broken out Radcliff when the alarm starts, a horrible blaring sound complete with flashing red lights and she knows they're chances of getting out of this have just dropped dramatically. She's working on getting them through a thick door Mays card won't open when the alarms stop.

"This is The Doctor. The situation has been resolved; please continue with your assigned duty. Agent May please escort Agent Skye and Doctor Radcliff to our floor, I'm waiting Daisy." The door in front of her flashes green and then opens and Skye feels both elation and relief beyond measure. Fitz called her Daisy, he remembers her. With Fitz on there side suddenly there position in this world is far brighter. She turns to May who looks confused, which only grows when she sees the smile on her face, Sky understands, to her that must sound like the worlds worst trap.

It takes few minuets for Skye and Radcliff to convince May to show them the way.

The sight that greets them is not what she was expecting, she'd ran through dozens scenario in her head in the elevator up, some involved a dead Aida (best case scenario), some a captured Aida, some a free Aida that they'd inevitable have to fight soon (worst case scenario). None of them involved finding Fitz and Aida sitting together on a couch waiting for them.

"Please, sit." Fitz said gesturing to the furniture in the room, in addition to the couch that he and Aida occupied one end of there were an additional two chairs in the room.

She notices Radcliffe and May moving towards the chairs, Radcliffe wearing a cautious, almost fearful expression, Mays face is blank but Skye imagines she's feeling much the same. There's room for her to sit on the couch, its two occupants sit close together, Aida's leaning into Fitz and he has his arm around her. It's a bizarre parody of a scene she's seen a thousand times at the playground. She sits on Mays armrest.

Nobody says anything for a moment, Fitz and Aida study their expression and they try to figure if its really their Fitz that sits before them or if its a trick.

"Are you back?" Skye finally blurts out "I mean, are you our Fitz again?"

"I remember everything," Fitz replies smiling "If that's what you're asking."

"Then why are you..." she trails off gesturing instead at him and Aida.

"I remember everything Daisy, but it remembering my life in the real world doesn't overwrite the live I lived here."

"But it wasn't real?"

"Reality is perception, even if it didn't happen in the real word its still real to me."

"But she manipulated you Fitz, brainwashed you! That bitch turned you into a Killer! She-" She stops here, noting the expression on Fitz's face and realising she may have gone too far. It's the same expression he wore when he spoke to her in her cell, just before he struck her.

"I'd appreciate it Daisy, if you didn't talk about Ophelia like that." She nodded on reflex, if anyone had told her just a few days ago that Fitz could intimidate her with a look she'd of laughed in their face.

"Nobody brainwashed me Skye, that's not how the framework works. A regret is fixed, algorithms are run, the consequent divisions are yours to make. In my case my farther stayed, and I was brought up differently but all the decisions I made were made by me. I could of chosen to change at any time but didn't. I am my own man Skye, for better or worse, nobody can take that away from me."

"What about Jemma?" If anything could pull back Fitz, it'd be her.

"What about her? I still love her of-corse." She noticed Ophelia cringe. "But I've been with Ophelia for four years, known her for eight. I love her just as much, if not more."

"Speaking of Jemma, why don't you tell me where she is? Her and the others?"

"Your the second in command of Hydra Fitz, your cuddling with its Director! I'm not betraying Shield to you!"

"Why not? This is the framework Skye what do you care if Hydra defeats Shield? In fact why would you care if we nuked the entire continent, so long as us few from the other world as safe, it isn't real, isn't that right Skye." He was correct, Jemma had been saying it since they got there, none of it matters so long as they made it out safe.

"They're at the playground, Shield found it and converted it a couple of years ago."

* * *

AN.

So this is my take on what could happen after season 4 episode 18. My main goal here was to voice my opinion on how Fitz could react when he remembers the real world, the idea was that he's be a mix of his framework self and original self. Because from his perspective all the events of the framework did happen to him and were results of the decisions he made. Basically I think it'd be a cop-out if they have him just revert to his original personality. Sorry if it seems rushed, theirs two reasons for this: one; I wanted to get it out before episode 19 and I rushed, two; I'm a bad writer.


End file.
